Sauber affected by Ukraine-Russia tensions

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has revealed that the current crisis between Ukraine and Russia has affected the team.

Sauber has been keen to exploit the Russian market, with the team having signed up Russian youngster Sergey Sirotkin as one of their test drivers.

But the rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia has led to business negotiations coming to a halt.

"We’ve definitely seen an effect because a lot of talks which are very advanced have virtually come to standstill because people are waiting and seeing what’s going to happen and nobody really knows the entire impact it can have," she said.

"The sanctions that have now been imposed are really biting some of them, so they’re very careful which again means that we simply have to wait and there’s nothing we can do about it, so we really hope that the situation can be clarified soon and all our deals can be sorted out."

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost added that he hopes Formula 1 will still go to Sochi for the Russian Grand Prix later in the year.

"Of course the political situation affects our negotiations with companies in Russia because no one knows exactly which way it goes and I just hope that it will end up in a positive way and we will go to Sochi because that’s very very important and then I’m convinced within a short term period of time that everything comes back to normality," he said.